Lesson 9 | Stems
[3] Qal and Niphal
We have already been working with the qal stem. It is the simple active stem. Its passive counterpart is the niphal. Let’s take a look at how these two stems look with the word מָצָא (“find”), which appears 307x in the qal and 140x in the niphal stem.
(You will notice that throughout this lesson there will be certain forms left blank. This is because those forms appear less than three times in the entire Hebrew Bible for any root.)
qal & niphal perfect for מָצָא
| 1cs | מָצָאתִי | נִמְצֵאתִי | I found / was found |
| 1cp | מָצָאנוּ | נִמְצֵאנוּ | we found / were found |
| 2ms | מָצָאתָ | נִמְצֵאתָ | you [sir] found / were found |
| 2fs | מָצָאת | נִמְצֵאת | you [ma’am] found / were found |
| 2mp | מְצָאתֶם | נִמְצֵאתֶם | you all found / were found |
| 2fp | מְצָאתֶן | [ladies] you all found | |
| 3ms | מָצָא | נִמְצָא | he found / was found |
| 3fs | מָצְאָה | נִמְצְאָה | she found / was found |
| 3cp | מָצְאוּ | נִמְצְאוּ | they found / were found |
Not too complicated, right? The suffixes due to inflection work the same in both stems. (This is true, in fact, of all stems.) The niphal only adds the נִ to the beginning of each word in the perfect, and changes the vowels a bit.
But if a verb’s first root letter is נ (called a “I-nun verb”), that second נ will disappear. Take, for example, the word נָתַן:
The נ that begins this inflected form is the נ of the niphal stem; the original נ of the root is gone. But you can tell that this isn’t a qal perfect because the נ has a chirik under it, rather than a kamatz. (The last נ in נָתַן also frequently disappears in the perfect—as you have already learned—given that it is a weak letter. We explained weak letters in this step of Lesson 7: י ,ו ,ה and נ.)
Identifying feature (qal):
- Closest to the lexical form, with a-class vowels
Identifying feature (niphal):
- The nun prefix with a chirik vowel
Practice
In this step and the next three, we’ll give you some practice identifying the stems of perfect verbs.
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
נָתַ֧תָּ
What is the root of נָתַ֧תָּ?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Is נָתַ֧תָּ derived from a hollow verb?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Does נָתַ֧תָּ’s root begin or end with a weak letter?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
What stem is נָתַ֧תָּ conjugated in?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
What is the person, gender, and number of נָתַ֧תָּ? (use this format: e.g. 1cs)
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Highlight and zigzag נָתַ֧תָּ in the passage above according to its aspect and stem.
In light of these things, נָתַ֧תָּ could be translated in the verse above as .
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
נִשְׁמְע֣וּ
What is the root of נִשְׁמְע֣וּ?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Is נִשְׁמְע֣וּ derived from a hollow verb?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Does נִשְׁמְע֣וּ’s root begin or end with a weak letter?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
What stem is נִשְׁמְע֣וּ conjugated in?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
What is the person, gender, and number of נִשְׁמְע֣וּ? (use this format: e.g. 1cs)
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Highlight and zigzag נִשְׁמְע֣וּ in the passage above according to its aspect and stem.
In light of these things, נִשְׁמְע֣וּ could be translated in the verse above as .
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
בָ֖אתִי
What is the root of בָ֖אתִי?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Is בָ֖אתִי derived from a hollow verb?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Does בָ֖אתִי’s root begin or end with a weak letter?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
What stem is בָ֖אתִי conjugated in?
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
What is the person, gender, and number of בָ֖אתִי? (use this format: e.g. 1cs)
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Highlight and zigzag בָ֖אתִי in the passage above according to its aspect and stem.
In light of these things, בָ֖אתִי could be translated in the verse above as .
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
